I have been working at Volcano Corporation full-time (more than a year)

Pros

When I took this sales job I was very excited. Great technology and seemed to be a growing company. They were acquiring products and companies. They took the time to train and get you prepared for the field.

Cons

Recent acquisitions of Crux IVC filters, Pioneer, and Atheromed were all Bad decisions. It is quite apparent from the Crux and Pioneer acquisitions and sales of this product that upper management has no clue what products to acquire and deliver to the market. Pressure, job threatening, and unattainable quotas are Volcano's core values.

Advice to ManagementAdvice

You get your renegotiated golden parachutes when you are acquired in the near future. The soldiers in the field that work their tales off are just hoping not to get laid off. Grow a conscious management! It makes for a better working environment.

Company employees in Ranch Cordova care and provide expertise and knowledge of system. They are ones who really know how it all works

Cons

Ranch Cordova is getting strangled - parking lots are 1/3 full and at a time the same work effort from several years back is needed to address technological obsolescence issues and increasing market competition.

Advice to ManagementAdvice

May be too late but this business is not a growth business. Its a revenue generating business which makes just enough revenue to support sustaining and maintenance. There doesn't seem to be enough market revenue to support growth and still staff up well enough to maintain the products Between that and new healthcare world it is no surprise things are taking forever.

Consider the mass exodus of key decision-makers (Presidents, VP's, Directors, Managers), this is a classic example of when rats are bailing a sinking ship. If you enjoy frustration and chronic misguided decision-making, feel free to join or try to join. Consider the collapse for the stock between 2011 - 2014... it's a roller coaster of a ride in the wrong direction for a reason - from $32 high to $16 low. A medium-sized company that wasn't ready for Primetime corporation and exchanging blows with it's competitors and investors.

* Upper management that: - Is immature, childish, petty, untrustworthy, arrogant, snobbish, and short-sighted. - Is unwilling to admit that they're the largest part of the problem. - Makes decisions on emotions rather than on data or good business sense. - Punishes those who question their points of view or decisions. - Believes in platitudes, slogans, and logos over actual change for the better. - Doesn't value domain knowledge or technical expertise.* Middle-managers unable to make decisions for fear of being wrong.* Culture of fear, blame, and distrust.* Highly political atmosphere.* Lack of common vision.

Advice to ManagementAdvice

The best thing would be for all of upper management to fire yourselves so that the company could find true leaders and actually succeed.

I dont even know where to begin. Management are idiots who do not listen to reason or suggestions. They expect people to abandon their lives outside of work and give 20+ hours a week of extra work for no pay and when the project is still late you are blamed and made feel like we need to work harder.

The project I worked on was already 2 years late and they made everyday feel like we were going to be releasing it the next day. PANIC PANIC PANIC. It was unstructured chaos which should not be the case for a medical device company. Their logic is more focused on having meetings about meetings about meetings where nobody decides anything and you end up wasting most of your week in them. They ask you to sacrifice your lunch for a meeting and only provide a sandwich and a bag of chips. Do not think for a second you will get the hour off at the end of the day. If you complain about anything or make a valid point you are made to feel you are the only person who feels this way by the management even though most people you speak to agree.

As for management they will fight you every step of the way no matter how wrong they are on a topic. They use the length of time they have been there as some sort of top trump card that means you are wrong in every way and they are right. While there I have never gone to so many going away parties. So many people left and even up until today I hear of more people leaving regularly. Those who leave congratulations on getting out. Those who stay you are in my thoughts and I feel deeply sorry for you.

Advice to ManagementAdvice

Fire everyone from middle and upper management up to and including yourselves and hire decent respectable people that treat their employees with the respect they deserve. Yearly raises, actual comp time/overtime for extra hours, Cash bonuses for hard work instead of those stupid Volcano stuffed lions with capes (what have they got to do with IVUS anyway?)

TREAT PEOPLE LIKE PEOPLE AND NOT LIKE SLAVES. You have great employees. Do not wait until it is too late and the best of them have left.

Staff committed to helping patients, designing new products. Fellow workers are good folks. Cannot say same for upper management.

Cons

Heavy need to maintain and test an overly integrated equipment base using a small staff of engineers that actually know how it all works.

Staff has been running an ultramarathon at a sprint, for the last few years. Relentless Execution is current cultural slogan - sounds like a Death March.

There is a belief the progress is slow on development due to the Product Development Process used. But t seems to be micro-management churn created by upper management and isn't the process at all. It creates a bad work environment since the staff gets blamed for the lack of progress.

Average pay.

Little upward mobility unless you are a YES man.

Silo city! Lots of politics!

Upsizing some locations and downsizing other locations. Read the reviews and you can figure out which are being downsized.

Little respect for the staff.

Management seems to think they know how to do the work they have no expertise or skills in. Usually micro-management by Powerpoint.

No in-house on-site education/training program for engineering skills. Skills are learned outside, and not within. Management hire for problem solvers and wonder why it is hard to develop things, since the hires have no real skills.

Most of the dysfunction can be traced to lack of trust of the staff by the management, and not willing to hear anything but YES.

CEO seems okay. Can't say same about COO.

Advice to ManagementAdvice

Keep out of the projects and empower/trust/respect your staff to do them right. Trust their schedules and budgets, not your wishful thinking. Get rid of this year's slogan - "Relentless Execution" - it sounds like a Death March.

I have been working at Volcano Corporation full-time (more than 3 years)

Pros

Amazing products that are revolutionary and save people's lives!

Cons

Lack of process and the process that exists is bad. Run like a startup that is no longer a startup that waited too long to implement strong process. Because of the lack of process none one is held accountable for their actions. And because of bad process and lack of accountability, the people outside of management are blamed. Lastly, the company lacks leadership. True leaders encourage growth, collaboration, and ideas for improvement. At Volcano, there are a lot of managers, but few leaders. Don't take my word for it the reviews are mostly the same for a reason.

Advice to ManagementAdvice

Create an environment of knowledge sharing and process improvement that will set the company up for success today and in the future.

Share the profits with all employees, only giving bonuses to the high income earners when you turn a tremendous profit every year is just bad business and bad for employee morale.

Former Employee - Research and Development Department in Rancho Cordova, CA

Former Employee - Research and Development Department in Rancho Cordova, CA

I worked at Volcano Corporation full-time (more than a year)

Pros

You are helping people in need of this technology but at the cost of an extremely stressful work environment.Another positive is the fact they are moving operations in the next few years so you wont have a job.

Cons

- No bonuses- No pay raises due to cost savings even though the company is making huge profits.- Appreciation of employees is shown by giving you a bean bag lion with a volcano cape on it.- Workload is unmanageable in 40 hours per week. Most work 50-60 hours a week or more.- Unrealistic deadlines and belittlement of employees who do not meet these goals.- Quarterly meetings consist of listening to the upper management talk about their recent vacations and how much profit the company made but no talks of raises.- If you ask for vacation time expect to be made very guilty for asking for it.- Approx 10 hours a week is spent in meeting that have no bearing for you and most other people there thus hindering your work ability.- Everything is a panic and a rush as no planning to fix the broken process is ever made but "we are constantly working on it, but we just don't have the time right now to implement it" attitude is everywhere.- Raise a general concern and you are shot down almost immediately.

Advice to ManagementAdvice

Read the cons and act on them. I am one of many people who will never work there again.